Become A Ghostbreaker

Ghostbreaking 101: Things You’ll Need

Digital video recorder
Digital camera
Digital voice recorder
Lot’s of rechargeable batteries
Ghost box
Flash Light
List of hauntings to investigate
Metal suitcase to hold all your costly equipment

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Tip #1: Ghosts don’t like hairspray

Do not wear hair spray or any hair products in your hair during investigations.

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Tip #2: Batteries Always Included

Make sure all your equipment, like an EMF reader, is in good working condition and you have two sets of fully charged batteries every time you conduct an investigation.

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Tip #3: Leave the tobacco at home

Do not smoke or dip on any investigations.

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Tip #4: Be clean

Be sure you are clean and have bathed with a non-scented soap. Also, do not wear perfume or cologne so that you can detect a scent from the past or spirits that are present.

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Tip #5: Location, location, location

Pick your investigation locations. Try to get permission for the location if possible. No trespassing means no trespassing. Do research on the location and document each and every detail during the investigations.

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Tip #6: Arrive early, stay late

Arrived early at your investigation location so that you can take your time to set up shop. It’s important not to rush through set-up, so that you have time to prepare yourself emotionally for the investigation. Remember: spirits can sense the unseen, as well. So, bring your patience- you will need it.

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Tip #7: Be nice

When you’re speaking with the ghost, it’s very important to remember the golden rule: treat others as you would want to be treated. This means: be nice! speak slowly! allow the spirt time to speak! don’t yell ! (ghosts don’t like yelling)

Some questions you want to consider asking the ghoul as you’re becoming acquainted:

Hello is anyone here?
If you can hear me, please speak to me,
Will you show yourself to me/us?
How did you die?*
Why are you here?
What do you want with me/us?
What is your name?
How old are you?
Where are you from?

*remember: most spirits don’t know they’re dead, but still ask.

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Tip #8: Use only a digital camera

Always use a flash if you are ghostbreaking in the evening. Don’t forget to remove your lens cap. Also, keep your fingers away from your lens.

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Tip #9: Check it twice

Review your work carefully- even checking it twice- after the paranormal investigation has concluded. Use the best software available to listen to your voice recordings and to view your photos close up. Don’t skip over anything! Look at each photo and video recording film for any evidence of paranormal activity that might be be present.

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Tip #10: Safety in numbers

It is best to bring someone along with you that you can trust. There really is such a thing as safety in numbers. No need to be a hero!

Anthropomorphize

The humanocentric tendancy of imposing human perceptions and priorities upon spirits and other wordly creatures or forces, assuming that all consciousnesses must be akin to ours on some basic levels. (This is a logical assumption when applied to the survival instinct and perhaps to physical procreation; anything more is merely a guess.)

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Apparition

The projection or manifestation of a quasi-physical entity.

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Atavism

Reversion to an earlier, ancestral type.

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Banishing

Formal, ceremonial, procedure effected to cast an invisible presence or influence out from an area. This term can refer either to a spiritual cleansing, or the closing of a magical rite, when the invoked powers are dismissed.

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Bigfoot

A bulky, hair covered, bipedal humanoid which appears to possess both human and ape-like characteristics. Also known as Sasquatch and Yeti, depending upon locale. Sightings of these creatures have for centuries been widely reported.

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Bogey(-Man)

A grim spectral figure who delights in menacing mortals with rather gruesome pranks and abductions. Although the lore of this character has degenerated into a familiar device used to threaten rambunctious children, the ‘Bogey’ was formerly soundly dreaded in Celtic regions, and was said to prowl the stretches of fields, marshes, and moors, looking for hikers and travelers who had strayed from their paths.

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Chupacabra

Spanish for Goat sucker. In Puerto Rico, for twenty some years, numerous livestock and stray pets have been found with throats torn out, drained of blood and bearing mysterious puncture wounds. On the scene sightings of the creature supposed responsible are exceedingly rare, and descriptions always include “glowing red eyes.” Locale and the absence of distinct tracks rule out either wolverines or monitor lizards, both of which always drag off their prey. The most feasible suggestion is a coyote or feral dog, but again, the behavior doesn’t match. Whatever is the true culprit, Chupacabra has become a popular sensation on the island.

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Cleansing (Psychic)

A less ritualized form of exorcism, where-in a dwelling or site is purified and malevolent influences are banished through prayers, spoken as the petitioner moves through the area.

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Crypto-zoology

The branch of paranormal research which deals with the exploration of legendary creatures such as Bigfoot, lake and sea monsters, thunderbirds, etc. It should be noted that the Giant Squid (the “Kraken”), orangutans (the “Red Men of the Forest”), Komodo Dragons and gigantic Nepalese elephants all were formerly included in the roster of fabled creatures!

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Dee, Doctor John

(b. 1527, d. 1608) Alchemist, astrologer, seer and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I of England who, along with his somewhat unscrupulous associate Edward Kelly, supposedly devised a method of deciphering an angelic language, known as the “Enochian Calls.”

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Doppelganger

German for “Double-goer.” A person’s duplicate or identical counterpart, seen as a result of bi-locational or astral travel. This phenomenon has been overshadowed by the more modern (and viable) concept of cloning, with its speculative ramifications.

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Druid

A Celtic priest of the Bronze or Iron Age, trained in healing, divination and astronomy, whose tradition was passed on to successors by oral tradition.

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E.V.P.

‘Electronic Voice Phenomena.’ Disembodied “voices” and sounds imprinted on audio recording devices.

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Empath

An individual, like Shanda, who is particularly sensitive to the psychic emanations of his or her surroundings, even to a degree of telepathically receiving and experiencing the emotions of others in their proximity. Obviously, psychic empathy can be regarded as a mixed blessing, and the empath must learn to gain a measure of control over this ability.

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Entity

A disembodied “consciousness” commonly referred to as ghost, spirit or (if of an apparently malicious or resentful nature) demon.

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Fetch

A spectral double of a living person.

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Fetish

Aside from the modern sexual connotation, a fetish is a shamanistic tool in the form of a figurine, animal part or a pouch containing items with magical associations.

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Floating Orb

Spherical image, usually translucent white, though sometimes of a reddish or bluish hue, which inexplicably registers on photographic film and videotape, also known as “Globule.”

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Ghost

The image of a person witnessed after his/her death, reflecting the appearance of the living, physical body yet less substantial. These forms often seem to exist in a dream-like state of semi-awareness, at times though not always cognizant of their human observers.

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Golden-rod

A rare anomaly seen in videotape recorded at the site of a suspected haunting, appearing as bright, white or yellowish lines rapidly moving across a room.

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Grey

The most frequently reported visitor from an alien world, described as having greyish skin, a bulbous cranium, tapered chin, straight, unmoving, horitontal line for a mouth, slits substituting for a nose, slanted eyes, and a slight body. In some accounts, it has three fingers plus an opposable thumb on each hand.

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Hobgoblin

Mischievous sprite (fairy, spirit) who delights in perpetrating pranks upon hapless humans, once widely believed in and dreaded throughout Europe and Celtic regions. (Caution: It is theorized that these diminutive denizens of the netherworld will, upon occasion, interfere in psychic investigations by devices such as misplacing directions and telephone numbers, draining flashlight and camera batteries, and even pulling keys right out of investigators’ pockets!) I assume that anyone who reads the preceeding caution will realize it is farcical!

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Homunculus

A form of miniature human supposedly produced (for purposes unknown) in the laboratories of medieval alchemists.

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Hypnosis

Specialty of Shanda. A state of profound mental focus, actually self-induced although an external agent – a “hypnotist” – often acts as the catalyst, or director, for the subject entering this state. Also known as “Mesmerism” after Franz Anton Mesmer who first popularized this practice (utilizing magnets as his props) during the last two decades of the 18th century. As concerns paranormal investigation, hypnosis is sometimes used as a vehicle for “past lives regression” and memory restoration in suspected (alien?) abduction cases.

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Icon

A rendering or image of particular (often religious) significance. Not to be confused with Michael Jackson.

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Incubus

The band the Ghostbreakers listen to while setting up for a paranormal investigation. This term also stems from medieval lore, a demonic entity capable of sexually arousing and sometimes assaulting human females. Cases of apparent incubus attacks continue to be documented, suggesting a germ of reality behind the myth.

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Infestation

Repeated and persistent paranormal phenomena, generally centered around a particular location or person(s). Also known as a haunting.

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Jersey Devil

In the Pine Barrens region of northern New Jersey and New York, for more than two and a half centuries there have been reports of a very strange and singular creature described as having an equine head, glowing, reddish eyes, stork’s legs, forelimbs with claw-bearing paws, a pointed tail and membranous, bat-like wings. It emits a shrill, piercing scream, and has been sighted rifling through garbage, standing in paths and roads, and flying just above the tree tops. One rather indistinct photo of this Jersey Devil has produced, but to the best of my knowledge, no one has yet recorded its ear-splitting cry.

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Kirlian Photography

Named after Semyon Kirlian who, in 1939, discovered – reportedly by accident – that when an organic or nonliving object is placed upon a photographic plate and subjected to a high electric current, a glowing “aura” forms around the object and is imprinted on the film. It is more accurate to say that rather than revealing a natural aura, this process produces such. However, fluctuations in the magnetic fields surrounnding the subjects can be detected in this way, and Kirlian photogrgaphy, the technique having been improved upon through the years, has recently come into use as a medical diagnostic devicec

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Lepke

A very unique and interesting type of spiritual manifestation, a ghost which has the appearance of a solid, living person, may even converse with someone, then suddenly vanishes. “We were talking, I turned to face her again, and she was just gone!” Such apparitions are most often reported to have been encountered within, or immediately outside of cemeteries.

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Lilith

Devil of Sumerian origin and later included in Hebrew beliefs, believed by Quabbalists to have been the first wife of Adam, later excluded from the Talmud, and held by some occultists to be a vampire goddess and a powerful succubus. Not to be confused with Lilith Fare, the name of a music tour made famous by Sarah McLachlan. Also not to be confused with Lilith, the wife of Frazier on the popular US television comedy series “Frazier.”

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Lurking Enigma

A type of entity which can be visable to human observers, yet appears in distorted, unidentifiable forms. As one would expect, they are extremely elusive.

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Lycanthrope

A person who projects a frenzied display of their innate savagery for periodic episodes, believing themselves to be overcome by the spirit of a beast.

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Magic

The practice of directing psychic ability, or “supernatural” forces to effect changes and fulfill desires.

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Manzee

Hypothesized hybrid of Homo sapiens (human) and pan troglodyte(chimpanzee), also referred to as a “sport”.

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Miracle

A wondrous and beneficial event, apparently brought about by supernatural/divine agent. Something the Ghostbreakers regularly experience.

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Necromancy

The practice of communicating with the dead to obtain knowledge of the future, others’ secrets, etc.

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Non-religionist

A materialist, one who embraces no formal religious beliefs; a more descriptive term than atheist or agnostic.

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Nosferatu

Slavic, old world term for vampire, meaning “undead.”

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Oracle

A prophet, seer and visionary, especially one of renown. Also, a special device that aids in prognostication, such as a crystal ball.

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Oui-ja (Board)

A divining implement consisting of a small, round or more often rectangular platform with letters, numbers and various symbols printed upon it, and a “plancette” which, when the fingers of two participants are lightly placed along its edges, is intended to glide across the smooth surface of the inscribed platform and indicate messages. Conceived of as a parlour game in the wake of popular spiritualism, this is potentially a very dangerous tool for inviting in unpredictable, invasive forces.

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Pact

The belief, prevalent in the late middle ages through the Renaissance, that someone could trade his or her soul in return for worldly gain.

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Paranormal

The realm of occurrences and phenomena removed from those to which people are accustomed and comprehend, and presently uncategorized by standard academia.

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Psychic Vampire

This is a term for individuals who seem to instinctively draw and absorb the psychic energies from others, usually while conversing with (or at) them. Shanda does not like this term, but Massey does.

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Quabbala

(also Cabbala, Kabbala): A very ancient and complex system of Jewish mysticism, probably influenced by Assyrian-Babylonian and Macedonian beliefs and existing as the basis of an underground cult during much of the middle ages.

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Radiant Child

The apparition of a child that is radiant.

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Retrocognition

The psychic perception of past events or conditions.

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Revenant

An entity which projects an appearance of being distressed or misplaced.

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Sanguinor

A person exhibiting vampiric tendencies (the desire to ingest blood) and attributes. These may be either contrived or pathological.

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Spirit

Existence apart from, or transcending, the purely physical; also, the life-force of an organism. A spirit commonly refers to a ghost.

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Spook

Benevolent spirit exclusively of America which comes from the legends of the Red Indians.

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Telekenisis

A psychic phenomenon where-in objects are remotely displaced and moved around, solely by the powers of the mind. A specialty of Joey.

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Thought Transference

Telepathic transmitting of images and messages from the mind of one person to that of another.

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Time-displacement

The experience of a time span separate from the native time span of the observer. The phenomenon is sometimes merely viewed and not participated in; sometimes a person seems to actually time-travel to another era.

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Ultra-terrestrials

Beings who appear human and visit our plane of existence with some form of message or mission, then inexplicably vanish. Speculation abounds! Something that Gabriel has had the fortune of experiencing.

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Voodoo

African magic traditions with a veneer of imposed Catholicism from the new world, taking root in the Carribean, particularly the dark populous of Haiti. Similarities in origin and practices exist in the beliefs of ‘Obia’ (Jamaica) and ‘Santeria’ (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic). One of the few things that scares Massey.

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Vortex

pl. Vortexes or Vortices. An anomaly which sometimes shows up in still photographs taken at the site of a suspected haunting, appearing as a translucent white, tube or funnel shaped mass. Some researchers believe this may be a porthole to the spirit realm.

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Vorthr

Norse guardian spirit. This name is the source of the word Wraith.

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Warlock

Term originally meant “deceiver” or “one who misleads,” in more modern parlance has become associated with a male witch.

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Werewolf

(Old/Middle English word for man = were) A human being capable of transforming into the form of a wolf (or any variety of animals), then back to human; sometimes referred to as a “Shape-Shifter.” Many insightful movies have been made about werewolves, including Teen Wolf and Twilight (Team Jacob!)

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Wizard

Wizard: A male sorcerer and conjurer who is especially adept and experienced in his craft. See also Harry Potter.

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Xenobiology

From the Greek word “Xeno” = strange, the observation/speculation of the biology of very uncommon or unverified creatures. This term has usage in the research categories of cryptozoology and otherworldly aliens.

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Xenophobia

A pronounced aversion to people, or beings, of foreign origins.

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Yaweh

(Pronounced “Yah-vay”) According to ancient Hebrew and Quaballistic teaching, the name of God abbbreviated to “YHWH,” (in Hebrew, pronounced “Yud-hey vav hey“), which is the Tetragammaton, whence is derived “Jehova.” It was deemed forbidden to pronounce, or even seek to learn, the full, true name of the Absolute. In pig latin, this sounds very similar to “ehwah” which is the tree of knowledge from Avatar.

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Yeti

A legendary creature of Tibet’s Himalayan Mountains region, an anthropoid with both human and ape characteristics, the “Abominable Snow Man.” As with its western counterpart, the Sasquatch or Bigfoot, credible witnesses have reported sightings and numerous tracks have been found, but photographs and purported bodily remnants of the creature remain inconclusive. Also commonly used in lieu of an obscenity when yelling at road-rage.

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Zarcanor

A malevolent spirit which attacks people while they’re asleep, inspiring nightmares, and sometimes even inflicting minor injuries such as scratches, bruises and what appear to be finger marks.

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Zephyr

Spirit bourne upon, governing, or manifesting as the western wind.

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Zombie

Prevalent in Haitian lore, a cadaver disintered shortly after burial (ere it spoils) and reanimated through the use of Voodoo, its sole purpose thereafter being servitude as a mindless slave. Combine secret pharmaceuticals inducing simulated death with oxygen deprivation in a tomb, then a hasty exhumation in the dark of night, and there emerges the horrid premise behind the myth.